In Bordeaux, the 2008 vintage was marked by disparities in fruit maturity due to unpredictable weather. Fortunately, the good weather from mid-September to the end of October allowed harvesting in good conditions, but the harvest was spread over many weeks in October. Pomerol 2008 and Saint Emilion 2008 are the two appellations from the right bank of Bordeaux which benefited from this complicated 2008 vintage, much better than in 2007. The bes...

 An indifferent spring caused uneven flowering and mildew risk. At the end of June the weather changed for the better, continuing into July. Apart from local hail in the Côte de Beaune at the end of July, the summer began well. August arrived fairly cold and variable, but fortunately the last week of the month brought fine, warm weather. The lead-up to harvest saw sunny skies, apart from two days of rain in mid-September. A challenging vintage.

From day one the red wines have had a rich, pure fruit character with fine, silky tannins. The whites offer a good balance between ripe fruit and vibrant acidity. A vintage not to be overlooked because the wines deliver potential and pleasure.  

2008 -The Champagne vintage set to make history!

A first taste of leading winemakers’ 2008 champagnes reveals a miraculous vintage, bubbling with potential, which – whisper it – might just prove the greatest in living memory.

2008 was not, by any standards, a vintage year for the financial world. And for the greater part of it, 2008 was a pretty poor year for Champagne too: spring was freezing, summer gloomy and overcast. But then, around the time that Lehman Brothers was heading for total collapse, a little miracle occurred in the vineyards of Ambonnay, Bouzy and Ay: the weather turned, the fruit started to ripen and the Champenois suddenly found themselves on course for a vintage that is now, on its release, being hailed as one of the best in a generation.

"2008 is one of the greatest champagne vintages of my lifetime," says Tom Stevenson, co-author of the Christie's World Encyclopedia of Champagne & Sparkling Wine and founder of the Champagne & Sparkling Wine World Championships. "So fine and focused, unbelievably long, with great precision, purity and intensity, yet barely perceptible weight."

High-profile 2008s launched this year includes Cristal, Dom Pérignon and Pol Roger Winston Churchill. Several more biggies are still to come, including Veuve Clicquot La Grande Dame and Taittinger Comtes de Champagne. But already, 2008 is drawing comparisons with some of champagne’s most legendary vintages. "From what I have seen so far, 2008 is the best young champagne vintage I have ever tasted," says Alastair Woolmer of Farr Vintners. "The 2008s have a very similar energy and intensity to the great 1996s, but with arguably better balance and more consistency. It could well prove to be the best champagne vintage since 1988. "

"I think the 2008 is my best Cristal to date," says Jean-Baptiste Lecaillon, chef de cave of Louis Roederer (which produces the prestige cuvée Cristal). "It was a very dry, cool summer, so we have this freshness, this bright line of acidity running through the wine that is typical of great vintages and particularly great Cristal. But it has a velvety texture, too, that will no doubt give it great longevity. "

"Weatherwise, it was a vintage very much in line with 1996, but this time we tried not to make the same mistakes," he says. "In 1996 we picked too early, so we picked later in 2008. We used virtually no oak fermentation in '96, we used more in 2008. We used a little more malolactic fermentation to soften the acidity in 2008. And last, but not least, we kept it 10 years on lees, compared to '96, which we launched after just six years on the lees - that's a big difference. So I think the wines have a texture the ’96 didn’t have in the end. It's a wine with super potential. "

The vintage (£ 279 from Berry Bros & Rudd) may still be young by Cristal standards, but it's already very engaging - salty, citrusy, like pineapple dipped in seawater, with a glorious, creamy mousse. It has that characteristic Louis Roederer flawlessness, but it's also incredibly exuberant. "It's a very, very strong vintage," Lecaillon agrees. "It could be the most 'Cristal" yet of the Cristals! "

Dom Pérignon’s chef de cave Richard Geoffroy is similarly effusive about 2008. "It was a miracle year," he says. "The whole summer ripening period was so-so - gloomy, overcast, gray. We had accepted it was going to be average, but then, just a couple of days before picking, it became outstanding. So the strategy became to hold the picking back, for it to be as slow as could be. It ended up being one of the longest harvests ever, close to four weeks. So much of 2008’s grandeur comes from working with those constraints and turning them into opportunities. "

From far left: Louis Roederer Cristal, £ 279 from Berry Bros & Rudd. AR Lenoble Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs Chouilly, £ 63 from The Whiskey Exchange. Eric Rodez Ambonnay Grand Cru Pinot Noir Les Beurys & Les Secs, £ 92 from Wine Source. Veuve Clicquot La Grande Dame, about £ 150 from Clos19. Dom Pérignon Champagne, £ 147 from Clos19

Dom Pérignon 2008 (£ 147 from Clos19) is a blend, more or less like all Dom Pérignons, of equal parts Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. The result is a wine with serious sex appeal: bright and sherbetty up top, more rich and honeyed beneath. On the nose, there’s a whiff of gunpowder - a smoldering, savory scent that’s a trademark of the house. "A lot of people draw comparisons with 1996," says Geoffroy, "but the 2008 has more substance. It's a bit more 'pumped up' - athletic, even. "

The launch of Dom Pérignon 2008 - which was previewed to a small number of journalists in June but launches properly in early 2019 - is particularly piquant for Geoffroy because it marks his retirement after 28 years as one of champagne’s most glamorous chefs de cave. Geoffroy’s shoes will be filled by his deputy, 42-year-old Vincent Chaperon - a succession that Dom Pérignon is marking with a special Legend Edition coffret for a small number of the 2008 bottles. "It's good that the transition is happening through the 2008," says Geoffroy philosophically, "because it's a vintage that's really pushing the envelope."

Dom Pérignon 2008 (£147 from Clos19) is a blend, more or less like all Dom Pérignons, of equal parts Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. The result is a wine with serious sex appeal: bright and sherbetty up top, more rich and honeyed beneath. On the nose, there’s a whiff of gunpowder – a smouldering, savoury scent that’s a trademark of the house. “A lot of people draw comparisons with 1996,” says Geoffroy, “but the 2008 has more substance. It’s a bit more ‘pumped up’ – athletic, even.”

The launch of Dom Pérignon 2008 – which was previewed to a small number of journalists in June but launches properly in early 2019 – is particularly piquant for Geoffroy because it marks his retirement after 28 years as one of champagne’s most glamorous chefs de cave. Geoffroy’s shoes will be filled by his deputy, 42-year-old Vincent Chaperon – a succession that Dom Pérignon is marking with a special Legend Edition coffret for a small number of the 2008 bottles. “It’s good that the transition is happening through the 2008,” says Geoffroy philosophically, “because it’s a vintage that’s really pushing the envelope.”

2008 was also a seismic year for Veuve Clicquot: cellar master Dominique Demarville was so impressed by the quality of the Pinot Noir that he made a major adjustment to the house’s prestige cuvée La Grande Dame (about £150 from Clos19), bumping up the percentage of Pinot Noir from 60 per cent to 92 per cent (with the remaining eight per cent being Chardonnay) – a change that he’s maintained ever since. “I had wanted to increase the amount of Pinot Noir in La Grande Dame to give it a stronger signature, to get that full body and length, for some time. And 2008 was a great year for Pinot Noir,” he says. “The gentle ripening season resulted in base wines with wonderful balance – depth and richness and body and acidity.” Veuve Clicquot La Grande Dame 2008 is majestic: succulent, firm and full of apple and bramble fruit, borne on a great whoosh of fine, silky fizz. Veuve Clicquot La Grande Dame 2008 will be released in early 2019.

Different houses interpret a vintage in different ways, but the hallmark of 2008 is that brilliant, mouth‑watering acidity. In a blind tasting I did of 2008s and ’09s with Nick Baker of champagne merchants The Finest Bubble, the ’09s were consistently more fruity, more evolved and often deeper in colour, while the ’08s were brighter, tighter and more high-definition. You could spot them a mile off.

Partly as a consequence of that acidity, the 2008 vintage has, as a rule, matured more slowly than 2009, a fact that led a number of houses, including Dom Pérignon, to break with tradition and release the two vintages in reverse chronological order: 2009 first, 2008 second.

Having said that, I think many of the 2008s are already tasting absolutely delicious. And a couple have already won top awards. At the Champagne & Sparkling Wine World Championships 2017, the Chairman’s Trophy went to AR Lenoble’s 2008 Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs Chouilly (£63 from The Whisky Exchange) – a luxuriant champagne that proved 2008 wasn’t just a year for Pinot Noir but Chardonnay too. “The vintage 2008 in Champagne was the best vintage following 2002,” says Antoine Malassagne, winemaker and co-owner of AR Lenoble with his sister Anne. “The rich, natural creaminess found in our Chardonnay grapes from the grand cru village of Chouilly was able to express itself beautifully.”

Piper-Heidsieck’s crystalline 2008 (£70 from The Finest Bubble) won World Champion Vintage Brut Blend in the same competition. “If 2008 has any flaw, it is that its wines are so perfect,” says CSWWC chairman Tom Stevenson. “Truly talented chefs de cave are skilled at blending together interlocking components of imperfection. Even in great years, it is the blender’s skill at the assemblage that creates a polished champagne, but in 2008, each base wine was so beautifully balanced in its own right that combining them threatened to do more harm than good. Some got it wrong and produced champagnes that were too angular and mean, but plenty of others made great 2008s. Many of the very best 2008s have yet to be released, but I have no hesitation in claiming that 2008 is the greatest Dom Pérignon vintage ever produced.”

2008 may have come good in the end, but for many, at the time, it was incredibly stressful. The sheer exhaustion of nurturing vines during a tricky growing season – which often called for night forays into the vineyards – caused Eric Rodez, a former cellar master at Krug, who now makes a range of cult cuvées under his own name, to press two separate plots of Pinot Noir as one, a mistake he only realised after bottling. “As a result, what is normally Les Beurys in any other vintage is Les Beurys & Les Secs Pinot Noir 2008 that year,” he admits, cheerfully. “This wine should not be made again, it is unique to 2008.” 

Rodez’s mistake will no doubt only add to the cachet of his 2008 Ambonnay Grand Cru Pinot Noir Les Beurys & Les Secs (£92 from Wine Source) – a champagne marked by aromatic, cherry fruitiness and fresh minerality. But he still has some more surprises up his sleeve. “We have in the cellars two secret cuvées to be released when the time comes,” he reveals, cryptically. “Patience, patience.”

I’ve tasted fantastic 2008s from the cooperatives too. In the 08/09 blind tasting with The Finest Bubble, Palmer & Co Brut Millésimé 2008 squared up magnificently to the prestige cuvées – it combined a shimmering, almost Roederer-like citrussiness with the snap of pale, buttery shortbread. A great buy at £46.95 a bottle for a case of 12.

If you move fast, there may also still be a few bottles left of Berry Bros & Rudd’s own-label 2008 (£36 each), produced by the Mailly cooperative in the Montagne de Reims – a champagne that’s all pale stone fruit and lean, chalky purity.

There is a lot about the 2008s that’s already pretty irresistible – but hold off drinking them for now, if you can, says Alastair Woolmer. “At this early stage, they are fascinating to taste, but due to their laser-like acidity, they will only reveal their true potential and pleasure with about 20 years of age. Truly great champagne vintages like this need bottle age to be at their best. This is a vintage to go long on and reap the rewards in years to come.”

by Alice Lascelles.

The year 2008 reminded Napa Valley producers of the climate conditions their European colleagues often battle. The wild weather put the vineyards to the test and required more measures than usual to ensure an optimal harvest. Due to the exceptional weather conditions, the terroir played a significant role in shaping the character of the resulting wines. Some of the influencing factors were soil quality, vineyard-specific weather patterns, the age of vines and the farming methods used

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After the extensive 2008 Napa Cabernet tasting, there were no great qualitative differences, however, as the wines at the tasting all represented some of the best that these top producers have to offer. Although the scores ranged between 86 and 96 points, the differences will even out through longer ageing, as the wines will reach their optimum drinkability within 10–15 years. It was wonderful to note that a great deal of the wines were characterised by a seductively succulent fruitiness, which made many of them enjoyable already – more than half of the wines have scored 90 or more points, despite their young age. Whereas the great 2007 vintage contains very refined and long-lived wines, the 2008 wines charmed tasters with their open and generous style, even though their best days are still far in the future.

The season was characterized by an autumn and a winter which were not particularly cold and with little rain, conditions which favored a slightly early bud break compared to the preceding vintages. Spring, and the first vegetation, saw the appearance of adverse meteorological conditions, with frequent rainfall until the end of May which caused a slowing of plant growth, a slowing which, nonetheless, did not have harmful effects on vine health. June and July, instead, were warm and dry, while in August there was scattered rainfall which helped the vines to sustain regular growth of both the vegetation and the grapes.

The months of September and October were very favorable for harvest operations, thanks as well to temperature swings from daytime heat to nighttime coolness, optimal conditions for grape quality. Sangiovese was picked during the last ten days of September, while Cabernet continued to be harvested until the middle of October. From the very beginning of the harvest the musts showed very interesting colors and aromas, which indicated that the vintage was of very high level indeed.

Château Palmer / Caractéristiques du millésime 2008
Après une fin d’hiver douce et sèche, le débourrement a été retardé par une vague de froid qui s’est installée de mi-mars à fin avril. Un mois de mai très pluvieux s’est terminé par un orage de grêle qui a frappé le sud du Médoc, y compris quelques parcelles de Château Palmer, ce qui a ajouté au stress que subissait la vigne. La floraison a eu lieu en juin dans des conditions particulièrement défavorables de temps frais et pluvieux, ce qui a provoqué une coulure généralisée.
La pression de moisissure a été constante cette année.
 

La météo de juillet joue un rôle essentiel dans la synthèse des composés phénoliques et ce fut un beau mois, pour la plupart. L’été a bien commencé dès le début, avec une longue période de temps relativement sec et magnifique qui a duré du 20 juin au 10 août. La période moins favorable qui a suivi et qui a duré jusqu’au 14 septembre nous a fait oublier ces semaines dans une certaine mesure, d’autant plus que nous devions lutter contre les maladies.
Les conditions froides et humides d’août et de début septembre ont soudainement et de manière inattendue cédé la place à une période de sécheresse très ensoleillée, alors qu’un vent du nord s’installait à partir du 14 septembre, asséchant les poches de botrytis.

Nous avons pu attendre que les échéances tardives se complètent, sans soucis sanitaires majeurs. Les nuits étaient fraîches. Cela se prêtait à une maturation douce et harmonieuse, qui fait ressortir à son tour une expressivité aromatique très élégante. Un miracle car seule la nature sait les produire !
Les Merlots affichaient des niveaux de concentration étonnamment élevés, avec des degrés compris entre 13,5° et 14,5°. La teneur en sucre des raisins Cabernets sauvignon oscillait comme d’habitude autour de 12° et 12,5°. Mais là encore, nous avons trouvé une belle concentration de composés phénoliques et des tanins parfaitement mûrs. Elles sont veloutées et affichent un beau volume en bouche.

Millésime 2008 par Château Margaux

Comme en 2006 et 2007, les conditions climatiques fraîches et humides ont joué en faveur de l’expression aromatique du Sauvignon Blanc ; Mais le beau temps est arrivé trop tard et n’a pas permis aux raisins d’atteindre les mêmes niveaux de concentration record, malgré un faible rendement de 25 hectolitres par hectare. Les trois tris que nous avons effectués dans chacune de nos parcelles ont donné un degré alcoolique moyen supérieur à 14, soit un degré de moins qu’en 2006 et bien sûr en 2007.

Cette courte période de beau temps n’a pas non plus permis à toutes les parcelles d’atteindre une maturité parfaite. Des différences subtiles pouvaient facilement être remarquées entre les différents terroirs et entre les vignes plus jeunes et plus âgées, nous avons donc dû procéder à une sélection drastique, en ne gardant que 45% de la récolte. 2008 sera donc le plus petit millésime que nous ayons jamais produit.

Ces mesures sévères ont permis d’élaborer un vin de qualité proche des millésimes précédents. Bien que moins puissant que le 2007, le 2008 est plus frais et peut-être plus équilibré. Il a une finesse incomparable, une subtilité et une complexité aromatique, preuve de la parfaite maturité des raisins que nous avons apportés. Les grands terroirs expriment généralement leur vraie personnalité dans de telles conditions limites. (janvier 2011)

Napa 2008 from the producers’ point of view

“Happily, Continuum’s estate vineyards on Pritchard Hill were protected from most vagaries of the weather as a result of our higher elevations and westerly aspect. A heat spike during flowering in May did lower our crop levels but weather patterns were fairly mild from that point until late August, when a week-long temperature jump pushed picking forward. However, no sooner did the heat arrive than it left again and the remainder of the harvest proceeded in a cooler than normal climate. All the fruit was harvested over a period of five weeks, from September 18 until October 25. Overall, the fruit quality from the estate was very good to excellent in 2008.”

Tim Mondavi, owner and winemaker, Continuum Estate

“This spring was one of the driest on record, and so vines pushed buds early. Then, a prolonged series of frosty nights kept us working hard in the vineyard to protect the young shoots from the cold. This was followed by a hot and dry spring that led to a lighter crop-load than usual with small, intensely flavoured berries that ripened relatively early. A warm and moderate summer naturally down-regulated the vigour of the vines, so that they could focus efforts on fruit maturation. This meant that a smaller but very intensely flavoured crop was picked mostly in the latter two weeks of September. For us, the 2008 Screaming Eagle would be considered a very characteristic vintage, having all of the freshness, floral and perfume elements, as well as finesse, that is classic for this estate. The 2008 vintage, although showing quite beautifully already, is likely to develop some nice nuances over the next 15–20 years as well.”
Nick Gislason, winemaker, Screaming Eagle

“After the early start to the growing season, the Eisele Vineyard harvest began slightly earlier than normal, with the first block of Cabernet harvested on September 11 and the final grapes picked on October 1. The 2008 was unlike any vintage we have experienced since 1991, which was our inaugural vintage.

A seriously challenging beginning to the season, but very fine growing conditions from veraison to harvest resulted in one of the best wines we have ever produced.”
Bart Araujo, owner, Araujo Estate

Lower than normal rainfall (28.9 inches) in the winter and a dry spring; bud break on April 1. There was a very erratic weather pattern throughout most of the early growing season. Temperatures fluctuated from extreme lows to extreme highs throughout the spring and early summer. This vintage gave us ten days over 38C between May and September and an equal number of days below 21C for the same period. This unusual pattern was followed by a cooling trend in mid-September, which allowed for a slow and deliberate harvest, and September finished with about eight days of between 32C and 37C. The end of this season was perfect for yielding optimal maturity in most of the lots.

                      Overall, truly a moderate climate for Napa Valley, however the method with which it was achieved was truly unique. Harvest began on September 2 and finished on September 29. Average yield: 1.5 tonnes per acre. During fermentation, the wines showed very forward fruit with very soft and supple tannins. As the wines aged in barrels they gained in both complexity and concentration. The end result shows wines with great finesse and density, sharing both an early approachability and a long lived capability. It would be difficult to duplicate the growing conditions we experienced in 2008 and it would have been difficult to predict the outcome of such a weather pattern on wine quality. However, we couldn’t be more pleased with the outcome.
Bob Levy, winemaker, Harlan Estate

“The 2008 growing season was generally drier than average. The valley experienced no significant rainfall after February, so soils all over the valley, and especially in the hillsides, dried out earlier and the season got off to an early start. Because of the dry soils, vines were low in vigour and consequently produced a smaller amount of fruit. There were fewer berries per cluster and the berry size in general was much smaller. The result is a greater ratio of skin to juice, technically speaking. And from a winemaking point of view, it gave us wines that were dense in concentration with aromas that truly centred on the terroir where the fruit was grown. There are more soil-driven aromas in our IX Estate Red wine in 2008, such as clay, mineral and crush rocks, than in most vintages. Concerning a comparison vintage, I’d say every vintage is unique and one could never make a comparison. However, if I was pushed, I’d -
say that 2008 has the richness of the 2004,
with the earthy aromatic profile of 2002.
We generally recommend cellaring our wines for at least 5 to 10 years and they will age for twenty years or more.”
Allison Tauziet, winemaker, Colgin

Get ready for the 2008 Champagnes. The season is fast approaching and promises to be an excellent year. One of the best.

Mr. Champagne is aware that we are at the dawn of 2016 and that the year of the Beijing Olympics is the last decade. He's talking about the 2008 vintage, which champagne houses are now releasing to hit the all-important holiday season. Bottles from this vintage should be much better than the 2006 vintages, which are still widely available.

“It’s exciting,” says Tyson Stelzer. “It’s a good time in Australia for champagne at the moment. There is so much interest around champagne varieties, especially among those with a little understanding. » Which, let's face it, isn't most of us. But that, he says, is changing.

“We drink double the amount of champagne we did five years ago. But at the same time, we drink 8% less sparkling wine in general. Consumption of sparkles has decreased, consumption of champagne has increased, which is overall a trade-off with more expensive wines.

Stelzer has spent the past month in Australia and London hosting tastings, launching his book The Champagne Guide 2016-2017 and filming his television series People of the Vines. And he and his wife just had their third child.

He’s tall, thin and angular, looking a bit like a high school science teacher – which he was. The world of wine, particularly champagne, was a hobby that became a career. His reputation is on the rise; Wine critics gave his first Champagne guide the same reception they give a remarkable Shiraz, and wine sages, such as James Halliday, regularly name it in their writings.

Stelzer warns that the greatness of 2008 presents a bit of a double-edged sword. “For the moment, we have to be a little more selective about the champagnes that arrive,” he warns. Yes, 2008 is one of the best vintages in decades, and many non-vintage wines from the last couple of years have this "great year" as their base. But now many non-cru vintages are based on the "very difficult" harvests of 2010 and 2011, so be selective.

Australians love their champagne. Buoyed by a strong dollar, we have become the sixth largest export market, far exceeding our demographic weight. But our consumption is unbalanced.

“We drink entry-level, non-vintage vintages from big companies,” Stelzer explains. “And the proportion of (single producer champagnes) we drink is among the lowest of any major champagne market. The proportion of roses we drink is low, the proportion of vintage wines we drink is low, the proportion of everything except the top five champagne houses is low.

He does review wines that he scores 80 points but never publishes them. “There are only so many plays on in Sydney every year. I have probably a million wines I could choose to include in my columns. The readers are not so interested in a bad review.” His advice? “Don’t spend too much time on the points, spend time focusing on the descriptions where you get a better feel for the cuvees.”

Just as Stelzer will champion an inexpensive wine, he gives some of the bigger maisons a score they judge beneath them.

“I am out of sorts with one or two chefs de cave at the moment who think my scores are too low,” he says. “That’s OK. They need to protect their territory and I need to be independent and honest, which I am.”

In his latest guide, after a tour of its command centre in Epernay, Stelzer writes that Moet & Chandon, the biggest house, is “one of the most exciting wine outfits in the world”, but still lowballs its Brut Imperial NV with a score of 87 points. “They’re not exactly my style, so the scores are lower than they would like them to be.”

He is frank about the price point of prestige cuvees. “Is a Ferrari really worth more than 100 times a Hyundai?” he muses. “Some of them are exorbitantly expensive and shouldn’t be. I have notes about some in the book that have a large amount of gangsta rapper following but not necessary the quality in the bottle.”

But other champagnes that cost hundreds are “absolutely world class”.

“There are some great cuvees starting to come through from 2008 — a very classic, very refined vintage. And long-lived; if you want to put something down for a child’s 21st, that’s the vintage to do it from, a beautiful vintage that I think will go down in time next to 1996 as one of the great vintages of the recent era.”

Germany Vintage Report by Wilhelm Weil: At first glance, 2008 seemed like such a wonderfully “normal” year. Nevertheless, and despite many a cloudy day in summer, the weather during the growing season was once again noticeably warmer than the long-term average. The somewhat above-average amount of rain during summer was good for both soil and grape.

The vines were in full blossom two weeks earlier than the 30-year average, and yet the main harvest didn’t begin until the second week of October. This meant that grapes remained on the vine for a long time, at least 120 days. Because sugar development proceeded slowly, the 2008 crop was able to reach an outstanding level of physiological ripeness.

This could be tasted during the harvest. Both grapes and grape musts were remarkable for their concentrated aromas, good body and high level of complexity. Even the grapes for our Gutsweine (“house wines”) reached high-end Kabinett must weights. This bodes well for the wines’ future development.

Most important of all, though, particularly in our stony parcels in the upper reaches of slopes, grapes once again remained healthy for a long time. As a result, we were able to harvest grapes suitable for producing great dry Rieslings – up to and including “Erstes Gewächs” – from our steep Kiedrich sites Klosterberg, Turmberg and Gräfenberg.

Despite all best efforts to achieve the highest quality possible, damp weather during the harvest naturally reduced the quantities of grapes we could harvest that would be suitable for our finest dry, as well as lusciously sweet, wines.

Nevertheless, Weingut Robert Weil once again was able to harvest grapes that qualified for all Prädikat levels, up to and including Trockenbeerenauslese. And this, for the 20th consecutive year – an unparalleled feat worldwide that underscores the special terroirs of our sites at higher elevations.

VINTAGE 2008 by Penfolds Grange / Declared a vintage of two distinct halves, with well-balanced fruit at optimum baume levels achievable with an early harvest. A seamless growing season with steady, early season growth and healthy canopy development. Cool and dry conditions during the start of summer meant that vines were poised for a textbook harvest and conditions were conducive to excellent flavour, colour and phenolic development. New Year temperatures would eventually crescendo in ensuing months, dry conditions would persevere and March the 3rd served as a pivot point—cleaving the vintage into the two well defined halves resulting in a profound difference in quality of fruit picked. Old vines with balanced canopies capitalised on the perfect growing conditions preceding the heat spell. “Weighted-average vintage charts may not do justice to the South Australian harvest in 2008. Penfolds reds will.”